piles

Instead of posting about the good sort of piles, today I'm posting about the other sort.  The messy, unpretty, nothing-good-comes-from-this, bad sort. The kind that grow and grow and grow and seem to take on a life of their own.  A life that infringes on the life of the piler(s).  Do you have piles like this?  Please tell me you do.  If you don't, lie to me.

I'm coming apart again and going slightly mad.  This time it's not because of the weather or because strangers are peering in my windows.  No.  This time it's the piles.  The piles are driving me insane.

Two and a half years ago when we moved to this house from half way across the country, we marveled at the enormous amount of storage space we had.  It was comforting to look into closets and crawl spaces and a basement and see them nearly empty.  It was an affirmation that we had everything we needed plus a few more things that we wanted.  Now I look into those spaces and I'm greeted by boat loads of crap.  But the crap isn't just behind closed doors.  Oh no.  It's everywhere.

On my desk...

Next to the coffee maker(s)...

On the kitchen table...

On the buffet in the living room...

Even on the ironing board.

There are piles freaking all over this house.  It feels as though some giant with a grudge against me came and lifted my house off it's foundation, gave it a few shakes, and put it back down.

My family is part of the problem.  My amazing mate who goes to work everyday in the wee hours so that he can be home for "the witching hour," who cooks the vast majority of our dinners, who is an incredible parent and an ingenious fix-it man...my mate who is all that (and more) is also the man who leaves his suitcase still packed and laying on the floor for weeks after a business trip and then for several more weeks after he's unpacked it, who leaves his tools on the kitchen counter after he fixes the kitchen faucet, who heaps clothes onto the bathroom towel rack until the door only opens 45 out of it's 90 degrees, who throws his messenger bag and coat on the same spot on the living room floor everyday rather than hanging them up...  If I have to tell Lola to put her shoes on the shoe rack in the front hall or away in her closet one more time,  I think I'm going to loose my squash.  Even little Astrid has the power to drive me nuts with her incessant need to pour water from one vessel to another and all over the floor in the process.

I'm a clean and tidy person by nature and my house is way outside my comfort zone right now.  An external environment this chaotic totally screws with my mental and emotional state.  I can't think.  Or rather, I can't stop thinking about the mess everywhere.  The stress of it is going to send me screaming for the hills soon.  To be sure, I have many things to be thankful for.  But when I can't see them, I can't be thankful.

Comments

[Sara]

Preach it girl. For me to have sanity, my house has to be uncluttered and pile free. However, we are in the middle of packing for move right now...and I am in a very bad emotional state. It's amazing how much little piles can effect you over the course of a day.
I've found that it is a CONSTANT battle. Especially with kids...you have to be picking up every hour. So no....you're not alone in the pile battle!

[Ali]

I have taken to sweeping all hubby's just inside the back door-pile into a plastic bag every once in a while. There are currently 3 bags full of stuff and no sign of him doing anything with any of them. I seethe quietly. But then again, he is a saint with the children! And I have my fair share of piles too.

[sinhob]

Oh my goodness - it's not just me then who has piles. Socks everywhere, toys everywhere, children everywhere and hubby who is blind to it all! Although to give him his due he does insist on making the dinner every evening - but what a mess he makes in the process!!

I do know someone who hides her partner's littered beer bottle tops inside his shoes and puts abandoned socks inside his work suit pockets! She swears it works a treat...hee hee!

[lera]

i'm trying NOT to laugh, but i'm right there with ya!

i'm in the middle of nesting (with baby #6 due anyday), so most of my piles have been eliminated ... most. of course, living in a house of children does not help! i've been trying to teach them to put things away but it's never really to my "standard." i think i'm driving them nuts.

[kirsty]

Sarah, you want piles? I got piles! Piles of them. And some are two feet high!!!! I have a friend who has them, too, except she calls hers "nests".

[shannon]

i don't think I have ever not had a pile, although unlike you, I am ....a slob. I try, but throw my hands up in defeat. It takes the event of people coming over to get the house in tip-top shape and even then, don't even think about looking in the closets!

[Amy]

We've got 'em. We've got 'em. I've actually started a photo series of the problem catch all spot in our house. I'll post about it soon I think.

It is inconceivable really - we've given away so much stuff in the past three years but somehow, we still overflow...

[angelique]

I think I wrote this post. I think you live with my family. Are you married to my husband?

[Tinuviel Pettit]

It's like someone snuck into my house and took pictures!! I'm with Sara, my house has to be clutter-free and clean for me to function. Hey, wait, maybe that's why I don't really function.

And the funny thing?...I clean and organize homes for a living. Their problem is usually plenty of storage and too MUCH stuff while mine is an old bungalow with pretty much no closets and EXACTLY the right amount of stuff :)